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Specter Wins Senate Primary in Close Vote

Senator Arlen Specter, a four-term Republican known for his centrist stands, turned back a ferocious challenge from his party's right wing on Tuesday, barely defeating Representative Patrick J. Toomey in the Senate primary in Pennsylvania.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Mr. Specter led Mr. Toomey by 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent. Turnout was weak.

Mr. Specter told weary supporters in a hotel ballroom here shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, ''Now is the time, having settled our family disagreement within the Republican Party, to unite, to re-elect President Bush, to maintain the Republican majority in the United States Senate.''

Social and fiscal conservatives from across the nation had rallied to Mr. Toomey's cause, portraying the race as a struggle for the party's future and a chance for conservatives to dominate Washington more completely than at any time since the New Deal.

But Mr. Specter, 74, touted his long record of winning federal money for Pennsylvania, his seniority and his support from the Republican establishment, including President Bush. His campaign criticized Mr. Toomey, 42, as ''far out,'' and broadcast commercials featuring Mr. Bush.

The incumbent's victory was widely seen here as a boost for Mr. Bush, who needs to make inroads among centrist Democrats and suburban swing voters if he is to win Pennsylvania.

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During the campaign, the White House dispatched Vice President Dick Cheney; Karl Rove, the president's chief political advisor; and Mr. Bush himself to campaign for Mr. Specter. But by aggressively supporting Mr. Specter, Mr. Bush may also have alienated some of the anti-abortion and anti-tax activists who so enthusiastically backed Mr. Toomey.

Republican Congressional strategists believed that the little-known Mr. Toomey would be more easily defeated in the general election. The Republicans had been counting on a Specter victory as part of their national calculus for retaining their two-seat majority in the Senate.

But Democrats asserted that the bruising primary forced Mr. Specter to move far right in ways that could anger centrists. He will face Representative Joseph M. Hoeffel, a Democrat from the Philadelphia suburbs, in the general election.

Mr. Specter, of Philadelphia, did well in Eastern Pennsylvania, while Mr. Toomey had strong support in the western part of the state, easily winning Allegheny County.

In his 24-year Senate career, Mr. Specter has consistently provoked the ire of conservatives. He supports abortion rights and has opposed a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. He opposed Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court and once supported rolling back part of Mr. Bush's tax cuts. He has opposed federally financed vouchers for children to attend private schools.

But Mr. Specter is also known for his political savvy and work ethic, and he managed to vote often enough in the past year in ways that won praise from Americans for Tax Reform and an endorsement from the National Rifle Association, two influential groups among conservatives.